Saskatchewan town of red paper clip fame readies for movie premiere
REGINA – Actor Corbin Bernsen has learned two things: first, that Saskatchewan in February is a really cold place to make a movie, and second, that his latest film wouldn’t have happened without a red paper clip and the people of a small Prairie town.
Bernsen’s new movie “Rust,” about a priest who undergoes a mid-life crisis of faith and returns to his hometown to heal, was shot in Kipling, Sask., a two-hour drive southeast of Regina.
“It was like shooting at the North Pole,” Bernsen says with a laugh.
“It was freezing, but it created a beautiful look for the movie and exactly the feel that I wanted.”
Bernsen recalls shooting one day when it was – 45 C with the windchill – his lips froze and he could barely speak.
It was “unbelievably cold” for a “southern California surfer boy,” he says. But the effort will pay off Thursday when “Rust” holds its premiere in Kipling. (SCN will air the broadcast premiere of “Rust” on Dec. 5 and will re-broadcast it Boxing Day).
The story of how Bernsen ended up in Kipling not once, but twice, could itself be a movie.
Back in July 2005, blogger Kyle MacDonald used a red paper clip to set off a series of trades in his bid to get a house. The trades eventually landed MacDonald with a limited edition KISS snow globe and then Bernsen, an avid snow globe collector, offered a role in one of his movies in exchange for the snow globe.
The town took the movie role in exchange for a two-storey house given to MacDonald. Bernsen then came to town and held auditions for that role, in his movie “Donna on Demand.”
But Bernsen, who is perhaps best known for his role in the hit ’80s television show “L.A. Law,” was also inspired to return.
“I fell in love with the town and the people there,” he told The Canadian Press in a phone interview from Los Angeles. “There’s a simplicity there that appealed to me and I think that’s really what attracted me to the place.”
The town started its own film company and raised about $250,000 after Bernsen promised to come back.
He wrote “Rust” with Kipling in mind. Bernsen’s character in the film must make sense of the aftermath of a tragedy – his childhood friend has confessed to burning down a house that has taken the lives of the family within.
The film crew burned down an abandoned farmhouse. “Corner Gas” star Lorne Cardinal, who plays a police officer in “Rust,” says it a cathartic moment since the farmhouse was where convicted pedophile Peter Whitmore abused two boys in the summer of 2006.
“One of the victims actually showed up for the burning of it,” says Cardinal. “It was palpable energy for sure because everyone wanted to see it gone because it was a blight on Kipling. It was something that everyone knew about but didn’t like to talk about.”
Beyond the raw emotion, Cardinal says there was “a lot of great magic on the set happening.”
Among the locals cast for the film were a mentally challenged man named Lloyd Warner in a key role. People opened up their homes as sets and local businesses donated equipment including heaters.
“I’ve never seen a town come alive like that before,” says Cardinal. “Everybody was involved in it, everyone was doing their bit to fulfil their end and they did great. The on-camera performances were pretty great for people with no training.”
Brad Kearns with Kipling Film Productions says he still can’t believe it all happened, adding there’s a lot of excitement in the community.
“That’s a good thing, it’s a good excitement,” says Kearns, who also portrays the fire chief in “Rust.”
“It so easy to have negative publicity on things these days … this is a positive thing and I think people are really excited and happy. I think it’s one of those ‘feel good’ things. It was a lot of work at the time and you pretty much have to say everybody pitched in some way or another.
“They always used to talk when I was a kid, always talked about the magic of Hollywood. Well, guess what I’ve seen it now and it truly is.”
But Bernsen says it was the community’s faith that got the job done.
“This is their movie, they did it,” says Bernsen.
“I just offered the opportunity for them. Did I spearhead it? Yeah, but I offered the opportunity. Without the people it wouldn’t have come together.”
Bernsen would like to work in Saskatchewan again and already has a surprise in mind for Kipling. Ironically, the town where Bernsen shot his movie doesn’t actually have a movie theatre and he’d like to change that.
“They used to but it burned down,” he says. “That’ll be one of the first things that I’m going to suggest they do for themselves and I’ll help them design it.”
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